The field of invention generally concerns stool specimen collection kits and, more particularly, to a device adapted to be positioned over the bowl of a toilet in an optimum position relative to a users rectum for collecting substantially the entire fecal discharge, but providing means whereby the sample or specimen is not intermixed or diluted with urine.
Fecal specimen collectors are, per se, not new. For example, the patent to Brockman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,433, discloses essentially a strainer device of a relatively permanent character and including particularly conformed screen apertures for retaining a stool specimen; the device being so conformed as to cause urine and feces to be mixed, while the foraminous container permitting urine to drain into the toilet bowl.
The patent to Nagel, U.S. Pat. No. 3,588,921, as in the case of the Brockman patent, is positioned beneath the stool seat, has a relatively complicated folding catching box, but shows a forward opening permitting urine to be passed directly into the toilet bowl without first passing into the feces collector. This is a complicated device and would probably be relatively difficult for uneducated, perhaps third world people to understand.
The patent to Ott, U.S. Pat. No. 3,501,781, shows a device somewhat similar to that of the patent to Brockman and is used to collect the entire fecal sample as well as the urine passed while moving the bowels. Further, the patent to Roberts, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,777, shows a foldable device somewhat similar to the device of the patent to Nagel; however, in this case, the entire stool is substantially covered.
Bed pans have incorporated disposable liners and the like, as illustrated, for example, by the patents to Presseisen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,061,840, or Whitney, 3,377,631. Other disposable units used for relief in vehicles, etc., are the patents to Szabo, U.S. Pat. No. 2,654,892, Billeb, 2,315,390, Ersek, 3,346,883, and Rinehart, 3,422,985.